Would you like to know how to access your files on your home server from a Ubuntu computer on your network?
If so, then the How-To Geek is at your service, as they have a great guide that takes you through the process which you can find here.
AwesomeGeeks.com have a great tutorial on how to control the power usage of your Windows Home Server rig by using the add-in Lights Out.
“Lets face it, under most circumstances, you won’t need a home server on for 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. Whether you’ve built your WHS setup from scratch or you’ve re-appropriated a used computer for your file sharing needs, it’s essential to control the time that you can use the server for energy efficiency reasons. Though WHS doesn’t handle this natively, there is an excellent add-in that will allow you to control your access to WHS with just a few clicks.”
You can read their guide here.
I have to confess to being a little puzzled when I was first handed the Tranquil Safe Server Module. From the brief I was given, I had assumed it was some sort of backup device to keep server data safe, used like an external hard disk.
But no, after visiting Tranquil PC product page for the Safe Server Module (SSM), I fully understood what this device is and what it is supposed to do. What we have here is a replacement system hard disk, one with dual 500gb hard disks, configured in a RAID 1 mirror, in the shape and size of a single SATA hard disk. Total WHS system disk protection.
Although primarily intended for Tranquil PC’s SQA-5H range of servers, in reality the SSM should fit in all shapes and sizes of home servers and will protect them all equally. The SSM body is constructed from a brushed metal alloy, with plastic front and rear and feels strong and robust in the hand.
Up front are the drive bay doors and a couple of status lights. Accidental opening of the doors is prevented by the use of locking switches. The status lights normally blink green but will change to red in the event of a problem with a drive. If you have the SSM mounted out of sight inside a server, management software is supplied supplied to let you know what is going on.
The Home Server Show Podcast is chock full of news this week, where Dave and the guys talk Home Server.
You can catch episode 94 here.
Geekazine.com have a side by side comparison of both the Data Vault X510 and X310, both from HP.
As well as the article the guys also have a 5 minute video to go along with it, which you can find here.
WHS Folding is a Windows Home Server Add-in which we have mentioned before which is a distributed computing project to better understand protein folding, protein aggregation, and related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers.
The add-in is currently in private beta but the author Kurt Anderson is looking for some beta testers. If you are interested please leave a comment to the post here, which also gives additional information on both the add-in and the project.
Want to build a Windows Home Server rig for around $500?
Then Tested.com has the guide for you and a video too. The guys test an AMD CPU against an Intel model with some file transfer tests and power usage tests.
You are then taken through the installation and configuration of Windows Home Server, including installation from a USB key.
Other appropriate software for Home Server users is also taken a look at:
You can catch the article and their 15 minute video here.
Will Smith from Tested.com has a guide on "How To Back Up Your Mac with Windows Home Server", which details how to get Windows Home Server working with OS X’s Time Machine Backup.
You can catch it here.
Will Smith has posted his 6 Favorite Windows Home Server Add-Ins over on Tested.com
“One of my favorite features of Windows Home Server is the ability to extend it’s capabilities using add-ins. Windows Home Servers’ add-ins range the gamut, from incredibly useful tools that help you keep your home server running reliably to goofy toys that are good for a laugh. Over the last few years, I tested dozens of Windows Home Server add-ins, and selected six of my favorites to showcase here.”
You can catch his favorite 6 here.
Bob Muglia who is president of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft gave an interview with CNET on the future of Windows Server products and about the shift to the cloud.
The edited transcript is available for you to read here, but what is of interest to us is what he had to say about Windows Home Server:
Moving from the very top of your product line at HPC Servers to the smallest product, is Home Server still a part of your group?
Muglia: Absolutely. We’ve got a new version coming out later this year of Home Server. We have a new version of Small Business Server, and we even have a new version of Small Business that will be targeted at really focusing on connecting to cloud environments, so enabling small businesses to run their own networking environment, have their own server for things like file and print, but then getting other services such as e-mail and collaboration from the cloud — which we think makes a ton of sense by the way. We’ll continue to build the traditional Small Business Server, which runs Exchange locally, but as (Microsoft Online) continues to provide more and more capabilities at a more attractive price, we think there’s tremendous opportunities for smaller businesses to utilize these cloud services, and we think they’re some of the first move.Home Server has been out for a while now, and there hasn’t been a sort of major update yet in a while. You have taken some time to think about what is the right use case. I’m curious kind of how your thoughts on what the role of the Home Server is?
Muglia: Well, I think we’re looking at continuing to make it simpler for people. One of the great things about Home Server is it’s a general platform; it’s a general server platform.We’re doing a lot of stuff in the next version to simplify the expansion of storage and simplify the way the client backup works, and make it easier to publish information out using your Home Server, connecting again to these cloud services. Those are all the sorts of things we’re looking at.
